Tag Archives: solar

The UW Minority Business of the Year Awards, launched in 1999, recognize outstanding achievement by minorities in building and sustaining businesses in Washington State. This year’s winner of the Southwest Washington Award is SunModo, a solar panel mounting company. The company was founded in 2009 by Tony Liu with the mission to provide the best value racking and mounting solutions for solar power systems.

Liu, also the company’s president, brings over 20 years of product development and manufacturing experience to SunModo. Prior to founding SunModo, he served as the senior mechanical/thermal engineer at Intel and also worked for Danaher and Credence to develop electronic power supply systems for fighter jets.

SunModo has established itself as the provider of affordable, high-quality solar mounting products. The company excels at installing rooftop and ground mounted systems. One of their most successful product lines is their patented EZ roof mount systems, which accounted for over 50% of their sales in 2011.

SunModo has produced a number of improved solutions and new products for the market by leveraging their mechanical and structural engineering capabilities and working with major installation companies. Its competitive advantages include easier installation due to fewer parts and detailed guidelines, lower installation and maintenance costs, and the ability to quickly respond to the market’s and customers’ needs.

According to the Minority Business of the Year Awards selection committee, “SunModo understands the business they are in and has developed innovative products that differentiate them in the market.” They are located in Vancouver, WA and sell their products across the U.S. and are exploring expansion to Canada. They employ nine people and expect to earn $5 million in revenue in 2012.

UW Minority Business of the Year Awards is on December 6 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle. It is hosted by the Foster School’s Business and Economic Development Center. The awards program will highlight the impact of minority businesses on the state’s economy and support the growth of the next generation of minority entrepreneurs. Learn more about purchasing a ticket or sponsoring a table.

Judges were supposed to walk into the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall on March 29, pick up their folders and grab a seat. But the 23 prototypes were simply irresistible.

They caught your eye the minute you walked into the room for the 2012 University of Washington Environmental Innovation Challenge. A bicycle with the electric assist that could transport up to 200 pounds of cargo. Solar windows that would continue to operate even if cracked or broken. The new cooking surface that was nonstick and nontoxic with no coating at all. A tiny helicopter drone that could be used to inspect remote wind turbines. The highway jersey barrier made of recycled tires that were not only cheaper to produce but could also lessen the impact of a direct automotive hit. The earth-bag house that can be built quickly and safely after a natural disaster—and still withstand a category 4 hurricane.

The Environmental Innovation Challenge, managed by the Foster School Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (in partnership with the UW colleges of engineering and environment), is focused on student-led solutions to environmental problems. More than 120 judges from Seattle’s environmental and entrepreneurial communities evaluated student teams from colleges and universities across Washington on three criteria:

a working prototype, designed and built by the team

an investor pitch, paired with a solid understanding of the market opportunity

the solution’s potential for impact

Judge Kelly Ogilvie, former president and CEO of Blue Marble Energy, was impressed by the creativity. “People are worried about the economy, but look around. This is cool stuff, and a lot of these concepts have legs.” David Allen, executive VP of McKinstry, agreed. “Every one of these ideas is pushing the green innovation needle forward,” he said. Seattle entrepreneur and Concur CEO Steve Singh was more impressed by how robust the prototypes were. “This is amazing,” he said. “Not one of these teams spent more than $3,000.”

The $10,000 grand-prize-winning team was Green Innovation Safety Technologies (GIST), which has one goal in mind: to eliminate the vast number of auto and truck tires plugging up US landfills. GIST’s jersey barriers use the equivalent of 240 tires (5,000 pounds of rubber mulch) each and have the added benefit, in comparison with concrete barriers, of increasing safety, reducing noise and enhancing water run-off. The team is composed of UW business and engineering undergraduate and PhD students.